Has the Worm Turned?

One of my favorite scenes in Oliver Stone's Platoon is when Chris is inducted into "the afterlife" by the Heads. After Charlie smokes with the heads, Elias asks him if it's his first time. Taylor nods. Elias tells him, "Then the worm has definitely turned for you."

That's is a great idiom. The worm has turned. According to The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers it means:

Someone previously downtrodden gets his revenge; an unfavorable situation is reversed. The saying represents an evolution of the old proverb, 'Tread on a worm and it will turn.' The meaning was that even the most humble creature tries to counteract rough treatment. Shakespeare picked up the thought in Henry VI, Part 3, where Lord Clifford urges the king against 'lenity and harmful pity, saying:
To whom do lions cast their gentle looks?
Not to the beast that would usurp their den.
The smallest worm will turn being trodden on,
And doves will peck in safeguard of their brood.'

Stone's embedding of this idiom within this symbolic ritual rebirth of Chris in Platoon works on a couple of levels. It foreshadows Chris's actual revenge which comes later. It is also a more poetic stand in for the idiom "the tide has turned", which means that Chris now has the strength he needs to cope with his situation. That strength came from the revelation Chris is supposed to have had after being shot. He's supposed to see what the rest of the heads see about the war. This is most well represented by what Elias says next--"Feeling good is good enough." This simple imperative sets each man's mission, which is to enjoy moments like the one they are having, and to survive in battle so they can have more feel good moments later.

It seems to me that according to Rogers's definition of the term "the worm has turned" the tide would have to turn before the worm does. In typical three act structure, the tide turns to indicate act three has begun and the worm turns at the movie's climax.

In America, and in much of the rest opf the world, the tide seems to have turned. Perhaps it happened with the blue wave of 2006. If so, maybe the worm turned when Obama got elected President. I hope that Obama's election was the tide and the worm's turn is still to come.

A worm turned when an Iraqi journalist called George W. Bush a dog, took off his shoes and hurled them at the President's head. Sure the guy missed. But has anyone ever been turned into such a hero in so much of the world for failing to hit his target?

Maybe the tide turned when Hurricane Katrina and the invasion of Iraq became burning tires around Bush's neck and the worm will turn when our kids are told about his awful example in their middle school history classes.

A worm turned when the bastards who manipulated the markets to their advantage and to the detriment of workers logged on to their bank accounts and saw a massive chunk of their ill gotten gains had evaporated when their rigged markets went belly up. Maybe the worm turned some more when many of these same people found out that a guy named Bernie Madoff walked off with even more of their empire.

This pseudo-revolutionary condition we are in is confusing, but I don't think we've seen the last of the worm yet. Surely though, the tide has turned and that feels pretty good. And maybe feeling good is good enough.